Student Pay

Students are strongly encouraged to sign-up for direct deposit of their stipend and salary online via AXESS.

Stipend

When awarded, fellowship stipends are available the first day of each quarter when students enroll in the minimum required units by the published deadline. During the regular academic year, eight units is the enrollment minimum. During the Summer Quarter, the minimum is three units. If the enrollment deadline is missed, stipends are disbursed a few business days after the student eventually meets the minimum enrollment requirements. Mandatory charges on the student bill, including rent for campus housing, will be deducted from the stipend before it is issued. No taxes are withheld, but stipends are reportable and taxable income. (Fellowship tuition and tuition allowance are not taxable in most cases.)

Research Assistant Salary – Two Tier System

School of Education pays doctoral research assistants on a two-tier system:

1. Tier I is for doctoral students who have not yet advanced to candidacy, typically first and second years. The salary will be the University's minimum RA salary rate, known as the pre-candidacy rate at GSE.
2. Tier II is for doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy by the first day of the effective quarter and have been enrolled at the GSE for at least seven doctoral quarters. The Tier II pay is equal to the teaching assistant (TA) rate.

Candidacy status does not affect the pay rate for teaching assistantships and teaching affiliate appointments. Those salaries are solely dependent upon the type of appointment, regardless of candidacy status.

STEP Supervisors

All STEP Supervisors are paid the candidacy rate regardless of candidacy status.

Salary

Students with assistantships are paid their salaries through bi-monthly (i.e., twice monthly) pay checks from the Stanford Payroll Office. Students are strongly encouraged to sign up for direct deposit online via AXESS. The normal pay days are the 7th and the 22nd of every month. Student assistantship salary is taxable income, and applicable taxes and deductions will be withheld in accordance with the W-4 Tax Data form completed by each student. This form and other payroll forms will be provided to new students during the Orientation in Autumn Quarter.

Pay Periods

Assistantships are for the entire academic quarter. Partial quarter employment is not permitted for assistantships. Summer Quarter has two possible assistantship termination dates (see below).

Pay periods within each quarter are based on a calendar year, not the academic year. Pay cycles run two weeks behind the actual pay date. Therefore, a student's first Autumn Quarter pay check is issued on October 22 (for work completed during the pay period of October 1st to the 15th). Thereafter, students are paid every 7th and 22nd of the month.

• Autumn Quarter pay periods run from October 1 – December 31
• Winter Quarter pay periods run from January 1 – March 31
• Spring Quarter pay periods run from April 1 – June 30
• Summer Quarter pay periods run from July 1 – August 31 or July 1 to September 30, depending on the type and duration of the assistantship.
  • All summer teaching assistantships and teaching affiliate appointments end on August 31
  • Some research assistantships end on August 31 whereas others end on September 30, depending upon funding and project needs.

Pay Rates 

*One 25% assistantship covers full TGR tuition. If a TGR student secures more than one assistantship in a given quarter, TGR tuition is usually split evenly among the funding sources.

*Pay rates are for the 2023-2024 year (autumn through summer) only.